A Lure For All Seasons

A Lure For All Seasons
By Bob Popp

The last couple of issues we discussed hot baits for largemouth and smallmouth bass. Out of all the baits available there are several that are equally effective on both species. A jerkbait also referred to as a stickbait is one of those baits.
Jerkbaits have a reputation as being cold water baits, though that is true, they very effective in all seasons. By changing baits and altering your retrieves and tackle, they produce throughout the year. Let's take a look at a few jerkbaits and how they can help you put fish in the boat regardless of the season:
The Skin'EE Min'R part of the new 'Strike Pro Series' of baits by Ambush Lures has the lip of a crankbait and body of a jerkbait. With its small profile and suspending ability this is an outstanding cold water bait. It performs best with a long rod like a seven foot medium Kistler Rod (KCBS7) paired with a high speed Tica Sculptor reel spooled with ten pound Sufix Performance Braid with a six foot leader of Sufix Siege. Fish this bait around main lake points and spawning flats with eight to ten feet of water. Make long cast and point the rod at the bait and sweep the rod to the side, pause and reel in the slack and repeat. The long rod makes sweeping the bait easy, the high speed reel will enable you to take the slack quickly and the braided line will enable to detect subtle strikes which usually occur when you pause the bait. Keep the color selection simple for example Ghost works well in clear water and Citrus Shine'r is a good choice for stained water.

As the water warms I like to use a bait with a larger profile and a sweeping action. The Ambush Mack Daddy Min'R is a good choice for late spring through fall. Using a jerk-jerk-pause retrieve will entice both large and smallmouth bass. Starting in late spring use a longer pause than you would use in the warmer months of summer then increase the pause again as the water cools in the fall. An important point to remember is to always make sure you jerk the bait on a slack line. A Kistler six foot six medium rod paired with a high speed Tica Sculptor spooled with ten to twelve pound test Sufix Siege line works well with the jerk-jerk-pause technique. The shorter rod makes working the bait easy and since you are working the bait fairly quickly you will have no problems in detecting strikes. Using monofilament also prevents you from jerking the bait from the bass.
In late spring fish this bait over newly emerging vegetation, in the summer this bait is deadly when worked over weed beds and in the fall fish it around dying vegetation. Basically you can't go wrong in any season with this bait as long as you are fishing it around some sort of vegetation. As for color selection, three of my favorites are Aqua Minnow, Perch and Tequila.

Another great bait for the warmer months of the season is the Ambush Yo Daddy Min'R. This bait presents a large profile and an excellent choice for drawing strikes out of deep water. With a large bait like this it's advised to use heavier tackle than you would with other jerkbaits.

Even though jerkbaits will catch bass right out of the package there are modifications you can perform to make these baits deadlier. Regardless of which bait I'm using the first thing I do is to change out the hooks. You would think a bait with two or three treble hooks that the strike to hook up ratio would be high when in fact the opposite is true, that is why it is advised to replace the hooks with high quality trebles. Many anglers avoid this step because the split rings can be difficult to deal with but if you use a quality pair of split ring pliers like those made by Texas Tackle this step is a breeze. I replace all treble hooks with either the Daiichi Death Trap Trebles or Daiichi Bleeding Bait Trebles. Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Randy Howell told me during a radio interview that the first year the Bleeding Bait Hooks came out he was the only angler on Tour using them but it was only a few months then everyone was using them. There are several theories regarding the Bleeding Bait Hooks, one says they represent gill flash another suggest they represent a bleeding baitfish, regardless of which theory is true they flat out work!

Always let the bass tell you whether they prefer a nickel finish or Bleeding Bait Hooks. For example if I'm using a bait with all Death Trap Trebles and a bass is hooked by only the rear hook I will switch to a bait with a Bleeding Bait Hook on the front of the bait. This detail might seem small but can turn a frustrating day of bass short striking the bait or inhaling the bait. Sometimes using all Bleeding Bait Hooks work well and other times a combination of hook finishes work well. I always have several of the same bait with different configurations of hooks. One key I have noticed several times is that if I'm using a bait with all Bleeding Bait Hooks and catch several bass then all of a sudden the bass stop biting, switching to the same bait with Death Trap Trebles will turn the fish back on again. Another modification you can make is if you have a suspending bait that rises when paused, is to replace the hooks with a size larger to help level the suspending action. As for the split rings, I replace those as well with a quality spit ring like those made by Worth.
These details may seem like extreme measures but it's always best to leave nothing to chance. As with any bait the more success you have with jerkbaits the more confidence you will have. Regardless of what season you are fishing you will put the odds in your favor if you have a jerkbait tied on.

Bob Popp, professional bass fisherman from Minetto, NY is a radio and TV show host. You can e-mail Bob at: Bob@BassChamp.com, his website is www.basschamp.com.